


The Confrontation

by protectmikasamuels2017



Series: Les Mis Modern Life [3]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, I love Marius and Courf's friendship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Revelations, gavroche is courfeyrac's child, gillenormand is a dick, possible trigger warnings, single parent courfeyrac au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 01:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20462456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectmikasamuels2017/pseuds/protectmikasamuels2017
Summary: It had just been because of a simple scene. A simple, adorable scene. But it had been enough to motivate Marius to seek out his father for some long-awaited answers.He just didn't expect the truth to completely shatter his world view.





	The Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

> Ok I'm once again a bit later than I had originally planned for posting but my laptop broke down and was out of commission for two weeks while I was getting it fixed and it’s incredibly hard to write on your phone. I also had a family holiday as well so I couldn't write then either. I imagine that I'm going to be facing similar problems once I start back at college in a few weeks so I'm going to try and finish this before that happens. 
> 
> If you read ‘5 Time Cosette and Enjolras Were Mistaken For Gavroche’s Parents’ then you’d know about the fic that had been deleted when it was nearly done. This is that fic and while I’m happy that I got the first chapter over with, I do apologise if it’s not as good as the others. I kinda just wanted to be done this chapter by the time I finished with it and please forgive me for any spelling or grammar mistakes or if the flow isn’t as good.
> 
> Just before you begin there I just want to mention possible trigger warnings for child abuse and self-harm. None of them happen here in the chapter but they are mentioned by Marius. I just want to let it known just in case.
> 
> Also just to note Gavroche is three months old here!
> 
> As always please enjoy and review!

Marius couldn't help but laugh as Bahorel hung upside-down from the couch, face turned towards Gavroche, making silly faces in an attempt to make him smile. Sadly, though for all his friends’ efforts, all he was gaining from the baby laying on the rug was his usual blank faced stare. Groaning in disappointment, Bahorel twisted his back slightly in his attempt to lean back up and settle back onto the couch properly. Halfway up however, he slipped and despite his best efforts he lost his grip and crashed down to the floor, twisting his body awkwardly as he turned to avoid hitting Gavroche, before landing badly on the ground.

For a second there was pure silence as everyone stared in shock and concern. That moment was broken however when the sound of giggling arose. Apparently Gavroche had decided that that had been funny enough to laugh at as he smiled at Bahorel as the man tried to right himself up.

"Oh course. That's what you find funny" Bahorel groaned as turned his body around so that he was on his knees and lifted himself off the ground to fall back onto the couch.

"Must be" Feuilly laughed, reaching over to tickle Gavroche's neck, drawing out another giggle from the baby as he lifted one arm to bat at the air aimlessly as he squirmed around on the carpet.

The four of them had spent the whole day at Courfeyrac's apartment just relaxing and having fun. Marius, Courfeyrac and Bahorel originally planned to come over to put together a study plan for the new college year for all of their classes. Enjolras was supposed to have been here too but at the last minute he had been called away because of a family emergency, leaving the three of them to work out the plan by themselves.

Not surprisingly, none of them had completed any work today bar Feuilly, who had tagged along due to having a rare day off and not wanting to spend it at his and Bahorel's flat alone. He had managed to read through most of the novel that he was working on. Some work by Victor Hugo. Marius couldn't see the name on the cover of it from where he was sitting.

If Enjolras had been here with them then this wouldn't have happened. If he had been here, then he would have made them work tirelessly until they had drawn up a plan that satisfied every single requirement their leader had before he would have let them take a break. But they would have had the best possible study guide and timetable as a result to help them for the upcoming term. And now the next time they saw him, they were going to have to face Enjolras empty handed.

And Marius was not going to be the one to tell him that they didn't do what Enjolras had asked of them, oh no. Enjolras' wrath was terrifying even when you weren't the recipient of it. He was just going to hide in the back, probably behind Bahorel, when they told him. After all, Bahorel was one of the biggest and the broadest of the Amis and would be the best choice to hide behind.

But Enjolras wasn't here now and even though they all knew that they would soon be facing a rant in their future, they were all choosing to ignore it in favour of playing with Gavroche. Surely Enjolras would understand that right? Gavroche was clearly the most adorable baby that anyone had ever met.

Eventually after a couple of hours, dusk had fallen, and they had all given up every pretence of even trying to work about an hour beforehand. Feuilly and Bahorel had left at around that time with plans to go see a movie and then get a bite to eat at some new Italian place, while Marius had stayed behind with Courfeyrac planning to watch a movie with him.

It was definitely more preferable to going home and eating dinner with his Grandfather; whose pointed remarks about his friends made Marius uncomfortable and feeling a bit like he was betraying them just by listening to them.

Marius was then jerked out of his thoughts about his Grandfather when Courf collapsed next to him on the couch, Gavroche in his arms working on a bottle. He eyed Marius out of the corner of his eye before turning his gaze to the remainder of the study materials lying on the ground and gave a little laugh.

"Enjolras is going to kill us when he gets back" he eventually managed to get out, taking care not to jostle the baby in his arms too much with his shaking.

"Well not all of us" Marius pointed out, "he's not going to kill Feuilly."

"Point taken" Courfeyrac shrugged as Gavroche finished the bottle and Courfeyrac rearranged his son so he could wind him. "Look I'm going to get Roche ready for bed yeah? Can you order some food in and put something on?"

"Sure" Marius nodded, pulling out his phone to open up the takeaway app, "Chinese ok for you?"

"Sounds great" Courfeyrac nodded, getting off the couch slowly before making his way down the hall to his room. "I'll just be a few minutes."

Marius gave a vague hum in reply as he sorted out the order on his phone and grabbed the remote for the tv, flicking through the channels to see if anything good was on.

It took half an hour for the food to arrive and during that time, Marius had managed to sort out the mess that was both his and Courfeyrac's books on the floor, picked a dvd to watch from Courfeyrac's collection and grabbed a couple of plates and cutlery from the kitchen for the food. And during that whole time, Courf hadn't come back into the living room.

Curious, Marius wandered down to his friends’ room to let him know that the food had arrived when he heard Courfeyrac's voice, low and muffled coming from his room. Cautiously and silently, Marius gazed into the room through the gap in the door, ready to back away if Courfeyrac was on the phone or changing his clothes or anything like that but found something completely different.

Courfeyrac was lying on his bed, Gavroche resting on his chest. Courfeyrac was gently rubbing the baby's back in slow circles and the most surprising piece of information was that Courfeyrac was singing Gavroche to sleep.

_Courfeyrac was singing Gavroche to sleep._

And for a while Marius just stood there dumbstruck, watching his best friend, who most of the people on campus referred to as a major player, sing his child lullabies to help him get to sleep.

And even Marius who knew first-hand every day that there was always more to his friend that what met the eye was dumb struck by this new information. He knew that Courf was a devoted father, he saw that every time he came over, every time he saw Courfeyrac and Gavroche together, but for some reason something about that simple scene just threw him, causing something to bubble up in his chest.

The feeling started to rise higher and higher in his chest and into his throat and he suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. Acting quickly before he did something stupid like bursting into tears in the middle of the hallway and attracting his friend’s attention toward the fact that Marius was spying on him in such an intimate scene, he turned and made a beeline for the bathroom.

By some bizarre stroke of luck that he didn't usually get, he managed to make it to the bathroom without giving away his location and locked it behind him before he leant his weight up against the door and took deep frantic breaths to try and calm himself down. 

What was wrong with him? Why was he like this? Why had he gotten so emotional over that? What about it made him feel like his heart was breaking in two?

For some strange reason Marius' thoughts wandered to his own father as he frantically wiped the tears from his face. He hadn't seen his father since he was five years old shortly before his mother had died.

After his mother had died, his father had decided that he didn't want Marius in his life anymore and left him, yet thankfully for him, his Grandfather had stepped in and taken him into his home, before he had been left to the cruel mercies of the State care system.

But still distantly, the memories faded and almost gone, if he concentrated hard enough he could recall a man playing with him in a big garden full of different flowers, throwing him up in the air, playing at being knights and dragons, playing on the piano while Marius sat beside him.

His father had loved him once, had been a proper father to him. Had loved him possibly.

So why had his father abandoned him without a backwards glance?

The question plagued Marius as he wandered over to the sink and washed his face with cold water in order to hide the fact he had been crying. It was something that he had learned at a young age. His Grandfather had hated when he cried, said it made him weak and girly, had on many occasions taken his cane to Marius when he had been unable to stop the tears from falling. That just made him cry even more, which just repeated the cycle. So, Marius had taken to hiding in the bathroom while he cried and washed his face of the evidence afterwards, before he had gotten into the habit of cutting himself. His Grandfather had been none the wiser.

Acting quickly, he unlocked the door and slipped down the hall into the living room just as he heard Courfeyrac's footsteps leaving his room. He sat down just as Courf entered from the hallway.

"Oh" he frowned staring at the coffee table. "When did that arrive?"

"A few minutes ago," Marius answered quickly, "I was going to call you, but then I was worried that you were in the middle of getting Gavroche to sleep and that I would wake him up."

Courfeyrac would buy that right? It was mostly the truth. Eponine had once told him that the best lies were the ones closest to the truth.

_'The closer to the truth it is' she had told him shortly after they had met, after he had seen her lie her way out a situation where normally Marius would have been given a ticket for dangerous driving, 'the less likely you are to forget a detail. It also sounds more believable. And knowing you, you're less likely to panic and mess it up.'_

Oh God, sometimes he missed Eponine like a phantom limb. Courfeyrac may have been his first ever friend, but he had met Eponine first. She had recommended the Musain to him to go for lunch which had led to his first meeting with Courfeyrac. She had been nothing but kind to him and he had cherished both her and her friendship. It hurt that Gavroche would never know her himself, that all he would have of his mother would be pictures and stories that him and the rest of the Amis had. At least Marius had memories of his own with his mother, even though at times they were hard to recall.

"Oh yeah" Courfeyrac smiled softly as if thinking about Gavroche which he probably was. That smile had become more and more frequent over the last three months ever since he was born. Walking quickly over to the tv, he grabbed the remote from where Marius had left it when he was selecting a dvd and pressing play before he flopped down beside Marius while it loaded.

"Ok, so today's topic on educating Marius about all that he's missed in his nineteen years of life is continuing the Star Wars Saga. Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back."

Marius gave a hum in reply as he handed Courfeyrac his own plate of food. When he had first tried the cuisine almost a year ago now, he had been overcome at first by the spices. Now though he adored the palate.

"I just don't understand why we aren't watching the first three films in the series" he muttered, even though they had already had this argument last week when they watched 'A New Hope'. Marius thought at first that Courfeyrac had wanted to watch it in order of their release dates only to be told very firmly to never watch the first three episodes. The argument had gone around and around in circles until Gavroche had woken up for a bottle and by the time that was done neither had the energy to restart the argument so instead they just watched the film.

"Marius we are not starting that again" Courfeyrac stated firmly, keeping his eyes glued to the television screen as if avoiding eye contact would mean that they would watch the film in peace. And because Marius himself had no genuine desire to go on another roundabout argument he just settled down on the couch in a more comfortable position, making a vague note in his mind to watch the first three films on his laptop later instead.

Soon enough Marius found himself lost in the film and managed to forget about what had been plaguing his mind; but he was soon turned back into the darkness of his thoughts with the plot twist of Luke's parentage and yet again he was thinking about his own father who had never cared him.

But the twist also reminded him that he had someone right beside him who also had insight on fathers who left and just didn't care.

"Courfeyrac?" he ventured hesitantly, hearing his friend give a vague hum in response. "Do you ever talk to your father?"

"My dad, yeah. We talked just a few days ago" Courfeyrac replied, attention still fixed on the film.

"No I mean your real father, I mean not your dad, but your fa-, um well you know-um" Marius stammered, desperately trying to find the right words as Courfeyrac paused the movie and turned to look at Marius fully, giving him his full attention.

"You mean my biological father? Do I ever talk to him?" he questioned, and Marius nodded quickly in relief.

"Y-yeah."

"I don't even know the guy’s name" Courfeyrac scoffed. "Hard to talk to someone that you don't even know the name of."

"And you don't regret it?" Marius pressed curiously, "not knowing him like that? I remember a few months ago, you had a lot to say about the man who raised you. Mostly negative."

Courfeyrac's jaw tightened at that remark and he looked to be struggling for words.

"A few months ago, I was struggling with the news and I wasn't dealing with it very well. I had just found out that the man I had thought was my father, wasn't my biological father and that he had been lying to me my whole life. I was angry and hurting and was lashing out. Once I had time to process it, I started to think rationally. Dad's my dad. He raised me and loved me unconditionally even when knowing that my mom cheated on him and I wasn't his. He never treated me badly for that. He's my dad, biology aside. My biological father . . . well . . . " Courfeyrac paused there looking like he was struggling for words, before eventually soldiering on.

"I don't know anything about my biological father, I don't want to know anything about him either. But I do know was that he knew my mom was pregnant with his child and he took off. He chose not to get involved in my life. And I'd be lying if I said that I was ok with that. I don't want to go looking for the guy right now or get to know him. If I saw him now then I’d probably deck him. Maybe yeah, in a few years I might be interested in tracking the guy down. Maybe just for some answers if nothing else. But right now? I don't regret not knowing him."

For a long moment only silence filled the air in the apartment broken only by the sounds of Gavroche sleeping though the baby monitor. Marius knew that he had to say something, anything.

"O-oh" he got out weakly.

Courfeyrac shook his head quickly in response, while waving a hand as if to dismiss anything that Marius might say.

"Marius why are you asking this?" He asked turning his head and looking Marius right in the eyes, his soulful brown eyes catching his plain blue eyes in a trance.

"I was thinking" he confessed, unable to lie to his friend. "About my own father."

Immediately Courfeyrac's gaze furrowed and he reached a hand slowly out to Marius giving him time to see whether he wanted it or not. Marius didn't do anything to stop the arm from making his way around his shoulders, instead leaning over into the touch once the arm was settled causing Courfeyrac to pull him closer.

"I . . . keep wondering about him" he began hesitantly, "I can remember a time when he was my father, when he did care for me. Only for him to give me up when my mother died. And I love my Grandfather of course I do, but . . . I can't stop wondering about my father. I just have questions that my Grandfather won't have the answer to or just won't tell me and maybe he might. . .. But I just don't know what to do."

Once Marius had finished, Courfeyrac pulled him even closer to his body and Marius eagerly leaned into the warmth as a hand ran through his hair as well. For a moment there was silence as Marius' words sunk in.

"Well Marius" Courfeyrac began, “I'm probably not the best person to go to for advice on this. Once I found out the truth about my own parentage, I refused to speak to my own parents for months on end and am still in a way burying my head in the sand over the issue with my biological father. But I think you should do what feels best for you. Don't think about what everyone else wants you to do for once and just focus on yourself."

"I don't exactly know what I want though" Marius admitted hesitantly after mulling on the words for a few minutes.

It was the truth though. He wanted to know why his father had just left him, why he had never answered back all the letters that Marius had written him when he was growing up, wanted answers for the questions that had been building up in him these past few months. But at the same time, he didn't want to know. Because if he knew and he didn't like what he heard then he couldn't pretend anymore. He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the truth.

"Well whatever you decide to do I'll be there to support you" Courfeyrac said sincerely. Marius ducked his head shyly trying to fight the blush colouring his cheeks. Even though he had known Courfeyrac for almost a year now, even though he had the Amis he still found it difficult to believe that people would willingly hang out with him. His Grandfather had often despaired of his inability to get along with the boys that he had selected to be his friends growing up, had tried to make Marius better. But he couldn't though.

Strangely though his Grandfather wasn't as happy as he thought he'd be when Marius had introduced him to some of the friends that he managed to make by himself last Christmas.

"Because you're my best friend" Courfeyrac continued, unaware of Marius' thoughts as he brought Marius close to his chest. Marius simply cuddled in closer, well used to Courfeyrac’s tendencies and habits. Courfeyrac made a happy sound in response as he pressed his cheek into Marius' hair.

"And you're mine" Marius muttered so quietly that he wasn't sure if Courfeyrac had heard it or not. Judging by the way that his friend pressed him tighter into his chest, he guessed that he did.

* * *

Marius fidgeted with his phone anxiously as he sat at one of the tables in the coffee shop. It wasn't the Musain but another one in the opposite direction from both college and his home. He didn't want anyone to see him. He knew that his cousin had no qualms about spying on him for their aunt and he didn’t want his Grandfather catching word of this.

After that night at Courfeyrac's he had spent the following fortnight anxiously trying to decide what to do with his thoughts about his father before he had finally made up his mind.

He had written up a letter to his father during one of his classes asking him for the chance to meet up and talk. He had included a place to meet and a time, though in hindsight he realised how foolish that was. The letter he received back however had agreed to the meeting and so here he was, ten minutes early and desperately trying to gain enough courage not to run away before his father even arrived.

This was a bad idea. This was a really bad idea and he should just leave before his father arrived and his Grandfather would be none the wiser. After all he owed his Grandfather everything. He had taken care of him when his mother died and had done everything in his power to try and make Marius a respectable member of society.

But he couldn't. Despite his terrifying and justified fear of what his Grandfather would do if he was caught, he couldn't help but stay. He wanted answers. Answers that only his father could give.

"Marius?" a quiet voice interrupted his thoughts.

Snapping head around to the side, he saw a man leaning on a walking stick staring at him strangely.

He looked like he was ill quite recently with a pale pallor and was gripping the walking stick quite tightly. He had dark, slicked back hair and a very well-trimmed moustache. Marius was both envious of it and jealous of his own inability to grow facial hair himself. He was very well dressed too. Not in a suit like his Grandfather would have worn but in dress pants and a sweater and no tie.

Quickly snapping back to himself he shakily got up to his feet and reached out a hand towards the man.

"Hello" Marius managed to get out, his voice sounding calm and even despite the nervous wreck he was inside. "You must be my father. We have a lot to talk about."


End file.
